About This Project
Why Vision Quest?
A Self-Discovery Tool for the Lost & Ambitious
Vision Quest was built to help people begin one of the hardest conversations: "What am I doing with my life?" I originally built it for myself during a career transition, using AI to guide my thinking and generate clarity. I realized others might benefit from a tool like this—so I designed it to feel approachable, nostalgic, and entirely free.
Problem Definition
Starting Hard Conversations
Some conversations are hard to start—especially the ones that ask us to reflect on who we are, why we're here, and where we're going. These questions can feel overwhelming in the chaos of modern life, yet avoiding them only adds to the feeling of being lost.
I created Vision Quest as a tool to gently start that conversation. Using AI as a creative partner, I designed an experience that feels more like a journey than a questionnaire—approachable, immersive, and deeply personal. Through ritual, metaphor, and reflective writing, players are guided into an introspective space where honesty becomes easier.
The inclusion of the shaman wasn't just aesthetic—it was intentional. Across human history, these were the people we turned to for guidance in moments of transformation. Now, that conversation happens between human and machine—an entity that will never feel the questions it asks. By reintroducing the archetype of the shaman, I wanted to rehumanize this digital exchange, offering a quiet nod to the way wisdom once moved through us: person to person, story to story, fire to fire.
UX Strategy
Narrative Design & User Flow Mapping
I approached Vision Quest as a UX challenge, mapping the narrative flow to align with emotional touchpoints while ensuring meaningful user progression. The experience was designed to guide users gradually from familiar settings to mystical environments, mirroring the internal journey of self-discovery.
Businessman questions his path (in office)
Walks through city & takes train
Arrives in mystical woods near Mt. Fuji
Meets wizard → drinks potion → becomes traveler
Walks through 10 interactions across 20 scenes
Receives personalized reflection from the wizard
Tool Orchestration
AI as Creative Partner
ChatGPT
Project Management & Content Planning
Claude
Code & Game Development
MidJourney
Art Direction & Asset Creation
Suno
Audio & Music Composition
Photoshop
Image Editing & Final Touches
Notion
Dev Logs & Time Tracking
Cursor
AI-Powered IDE & Development
X (Twitter)
Building in Public & Documentation
Netlify
Deployment & Hosting
The Characters
Businessman → Traveler
You begin as a modern office worker, burned out and seeking answers. After boarding a bullet train and venturing into the wilderness, you become a cloaked traveler on a mystical quest. Along the way, you're joined by a spirit wolf guide who protects you on your journey through challenging terrain and moments of doubt. This transformation mirrors the journey many of us take when stepping away from distractions and into reflection.
Businessman
Traveler
Wizard
Process & Prototyping
Built in 60 hours, Logged Every Night
Every night of development was logged—tracking the tools used, blockers, breakthroughs, and game design decisions. These dev logs, paired with video clips and version comparisons, became the backbone of this case study. I used a modular system in Phaser 3 to create scene templates, then mapped all 10 interactions into a playable narrative.
By The Numbers
Quantified Effort
Pixel Art as Storytelling
Using AI for Emotion, Not Just Assets
Midjourney was pushed to its limits to create detailed environments with consistent palettes, atmosphere, and platform design. I used a seed-stable iteration method to create 10+ unique levels, each grounded in a real-world visual metaphor for internal emotions—cold peaks, misty forests, overgrown ruins, and icy rivers.
A Wizard, Ten Shamans & One Final Scroll
A Guided Narrative from Confusion to Clarity
Each level presents a new reflection, posed by a shaman figure based on real-world historical traditions (e.g., Norse Völva, Tibetan Bönpo). The player types responses to deep questions, which are later summarized by the final Game Wizard. This closing scene gives each user a unique reflection and symbolic artifact of their journey—generating an interactive memory they can download and revisit.
What I'd Do Differently
UX Reflection
I started building Vision Quest using Claude 3.5, which helped me create the initial prototype with a single walking scene, but it had no interaction or dialog capabilities. When Claude 3.7 was released, I switched to using Cursor as my development environment, and the development speed skyrocketed. What had taken weeks became possible in days—allowing for more features, better testing, and a much richer user experience.
If I were to start over, I'd begin directly in Cursor with Claude 3.7. The integrated coding environment with real-time AI assistance made it possible to rapidly iterate on both the technical implementation and the user experience design simultaneously.
Final Thoughts
A Small Project with Big Intentions
This isn't a product with mass-market fit. It's a handcrafted tool built to help someone feel just a little less lost. As the barrier to entry for technology lowers, I believe good ideas—grounded in empathy and executed with clarity—will become the most valuable currency in tech. Vision Quest is one of mine.